Demon Disease
by Mystic Cake
Summary: Two skilled demon hunters have an unfortunate fate awaiting them when they meet a charismatic demon who narrowly escapes death at their hands. Rated for slight violence, takes place after Ein/Serene ending.
1. Unfortunate Luck

Demon Disease

Author's Note- you know, being lazy is terrible (trying to stay away from profanity this whole story, I was very tempted to use it in that last statement) Still I'm working on Mother Malice as I write this, and still I'm too incompetent to bother dealing with the writer's block (maybe not incompetent, more like just plain lazy, but that's just splitting hairs) Anyways, here's some crazy idea I came up with at about midnight on a Friday, Enjoy!

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Chapter 1: Unfortunate Luck

We are demons.

I say this so flatly since such a statement can mean so many things to so many people, and I wonder what you think.

Now that I think of it, you must think it quite rude of me asking you what you think when I haven't introduced myself to you yet- I am called Patrick 'Lucky' Zenthaille, but please just call me Patrick, and I am proud to call myself a demon.

Some people think of us as a race of horrible creatures simply existing to give angels something to kill, others see us as a scapegoat for all evil in the world, still others think of us as nothing but a derogatory term for someone call people who wrong them; but my personal favorite is, of course, the least common of all beliefs of what demons truly are, and it is of course the truth.

I suppose that the truth is a sort of mixture of the above beliefs, since all of them can be seen in the truth. The truth being that demons are _freedom, _how much freedom depends on the individual, and since often one's freedoms can interfere with another's, all the victim's feelings of hatred need to be bound up into one little neat and tidy word- that being _demon._

As I said before, the limits of freedom depend on the individual; some are satisfied with just a bit, like the freedom to live and work on your own to survive for yourself; others feel they _need_ **total, unrestricted freedom **to do whatever they wish, so they take whatever they wish, and bring harm to whomever they wish. Added with the concept of demon as a derogatory term, it raises the question: where is the line drawn? Most people can agree that it stops where one's freedom either interferes with another's or brings another harm.

At any rate, all this philosophy is detracting from my main point- demonism as freedom is a _disease- _By that I mean that it can be spread from one mind to another; true, some may argue that this makes it more of an _idea; _while I do not totally disagree, in my slight experience demonism changes people far too drastically for it to just be a simple idea; still you may think an idea can do the same, but not to the extent I have seen.

I will recount a tale of a couple that fell into the depths of demonism and were changed forever; perhaps after I tell you this tale you will think of demons as I do, or perhaps you will think me a madman, that's up to you.

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It started as a normal day in the forest in close proximity to Lacrima Castle, the former home of the arcs and in the foreseeable future, a famous tourist attraction for its permanent night. If I recall correctly, I was taking shelter in an abandoned town called Rosalina, this was after the genocide of the arcs, so there were none to kick me out, or so I thought.

I was eating a fish I cooked just a few minutes before while admiring the moonlight (the town was close enough to the castle to also be bathed in eternal moonlight). I heard two distinct voices talking and laughing from the forest, quite far away but I could tell that one was male and the other female (I took residence in a house on the outer edge of the town in close proximity to the forest, this way I could hear someone coming, like now) I quickly hid myself in the house behind a small sort of barrier that divided the stairway to the upper floor from the foyer sort of area- all for hoping they would pass through the town and leave me in peace; tragically this is where my nickname of 'lucky' failed me, or perhaps it's just because I made a very bad and outright stupid decision.

I carefully listened to their voices grow louder and footsteps come closer, evidently one of them saw the half-eaten fish I was too scared to remember to not leave on the ground, I think it was the male who pointed it out, and both drew their weapons almost in perfect unison. Slowly and with a practiced awareness to any possible ambush they both entered the first house they saw- the one I was in. I was too scared to think with any logic, and I quickly decided to abandon my hiding place and try to outrun them. The doorway was not even 10 feet from my hiding place, so I quickly rushed right at them unarmed, and evidently I managed to catch them off-guard and I managed to charge right through the girl, not even catching a glimpse of who either of them were, and I sprinted as fast as my feet could carry me into the forest.

Despite my terror at the time, I heard the girl I knocked over yell "Don't just stand there- catch him, Ein!" Then the sound of feet chasing after me. I figured that due to his quick reflexes he started running somewhere less than 2 seconds after me, so I figured there wasn't enough space between us for me to try and outmaneuver him by taking a sharp turn or two and losing him, so I just kept sprinting, and foolishly I didn't pay any attention to where I was going, and I ended up running right into a tree.

Quickly I scrambled to my feet, closed my eyes and sprinted past the tree and went straight, hoping for the best of luck- which again I didn't get. Probably less than 20 seconds of running from where I hit the tree the ground disappeared from under me- or so I thought, I actually ran straight off a cliff into Rosalina Lake.

Still in complete terror, I frantically flailed my arms and legs in a desperate attempt to gain an idea of where I was. It took a while before I finally realized I was in water, so I swam as fast as I possibly could to the opposite shore, just now realizing and lamenting that I left my favorite spear back at the house- I was too panicked to remember it. After swimming for some time, I finally realized that there was no one swimming after me, so I stopped and rested for about a minute.

Once I gained a more definite idea of where I was (earlier when I realized I was in water, it didn't occur to me specifically what body of water I was in) I realized I must've run for at least 3 miles and swam for another eighth a mile or so. Once this realization occurred to me, I slowed and quieted my breathing to near-silence so I could think of what to do next; in this silence I heard something, something very far away, but curious enough of a sound to draw my attention on this otherwise silent lake, save for the foaming of the water made by my earlier frantic swimming. I soon dismissed this sound as a negligible sound of the wilderness creatures of the night, another foolish mistake on my part.

For a minute or two I simply closed my eyes and thanked anyone who would listen to my prayers that I managed to get away alive, then I looked into the sky, and saw a breathtaking sight I never would have expected, and still I lament that I was the only one to have seen it.

A dark-blue haired maiden, more beautiful than anyone I have ever seen, graced the sky above me with her masterpiece of a figure. Her short hair was kept in place by what I thought of as a black bow, and her graceful figure was covered by a dark-blue sort of cloak, and under that was a sort of white corset with some extra cloth running down her waist, making a sort of dress. The sort of corset had a large black stripe right down the center of it running vertical-wise, covering the area in between the cloak's two sides. On her back I saw a pair of large bat wings, while it occurred to me that they seemed too small for flight, she seemed to fly so gracefully and easily that she probably could've carried me while flying with no trouble. Just above her white gloves and black shoes, the maiden's arms and legs were gracefully covered in bandages, I figured that was most likely on purpose since it seemed unlikely to me that someone deliberately attacked and injured such a heavenly maiden. Her magical eyes, my own gaze was drawn to them for some time, dark-blue like her hair and giving me an understandably furious look as she flew towards me- evidently she had sharp eyes to spot me, as I was just a dot at her height, and I was in the middle of the lake blackened by night.

For far too long a time I just stayed still in the water and admired her figure, then as she came closer I realized that her graceful and soft-looking hands held a very large and very deadly looking scythe that was the color of night- jet black, but I think she wanted it red- it was poised to strike at me so vulnerable in the water. The maiden began a swift dive right towards me, and I myself dived as well. I dove a few feet underwater so even if her blade did reach me it wouldn't have enough momentum to really hurt me, and if she followed me into the water, all the better for me since she probably wasn't as strong as me and thus couldn't swim as fast- or so I hoped.

I dove for no more than 3 feet when I collided face-first with the bottom- I must've been close to shore. I waited for the inevitable feeling of water rending to the passage of her brutal strike above me, but it never came. After about a half-minute of waiting I re-surfaced and stood up; once I cleared my eyes I realized why I felt no strike above me- I was hardly 10 meters from the shore and there she stood, a taunting smile on her face, scythe in her right hand, the other hand motioning for me to come closer. Completely forgetting my other pursuer, thoughts of lust filled my head, then they quickly dispersed when I realized she was very obviously going to kill me once I got there, so the logical thing to do would be to continue running; then another thought occurred to me- there was no escape now. She was standing on shore, and if she had at least two working legs (I would think so, she was standing upright) then she should easily be able to run faster than I could swim, and I can't keep swimming forever, I would eventually have to go to shore, and there she would be waiting. True, I could probably dive in the middle of the lake and swim underwater to make her lose sight of me, but she can fly, and with her sharp eyes, what good will that do once I have to re-surface?

I resigned to my defeat and waded to shore while mentally praying for mercy. As I approached her I was surprised she was about a head shorter than me, but even more surprising was that her scythe was about a foot taller than me when its butt was resting on the ground, which now it was. On her forehead was a bruise, I assume that was my causing. I was fully expecting to die, but at the time I was glad so beautiful a girl would be my slayer, and I filled my head with what I thought would be my last thoughts of sinful lusts that would never happen that involved me and her, then I closed my eyes and waited for my inevitable decapitation.

What felt like an unbearable eternity passed, but it was probably only like 10 seconds until I elected to open my eyes, and I saw that she was a few feet away, looking back at me and impatiently motioning for me to follow; again the thoughts came back, with a bit more hope than last time, what a fool I was to even hope in this situation.

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Author's Note- I believe I just impressed myself, as I did all of this chapter and a lot of the next one in like, 30 minutes! Yay me! I'm already working on chapter 2, so this is going to be a loooong distraction from Mother Malice I can already tell!

A.N.- Nevermind that previous note, the distraction is largely over and probably after I upload chapter 2 I'm not going to continue this story until Mother Malice is finished


	2. Executioner's Pardon

Demon Disease

Author's Note- This is sort of a continuation of my previous laziness, since I did the first chapter and half of this one all in one sitting, I might as well keep going with it, at least until the writer's block for Mother Malice clears up.

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Chapter 2: Executioner's Pardon

For 2 hours we walked in almost total silence, and the part of me that was ogling her over her beauty died long ago and the part of me that was scared of her grew to take its place. I was scared again, so scared that I didn't even notice that she was leading me back to Rosalina. Eventually I grew so curious about her, I had to start asking questions, and I figured the logical place to start would be to ask her name.

"So... My name's Patrick, what's yours?" I believe I phrased the question this way, but I probably made it sound a bit more foolish than that; nevertheless as if she expected that question, she smiled and immediately answered with a perfectly demure voice- "My name is Serene, and as my prisoner, I would appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut for the duration of your captivity."

I was more than a little surprised at her impressive use of vocabulary at the end (impressive to me, I'm not too smart when it comes to most words with more than 2 syllables, at least I wasn't, now I'm much better) and her control against using profanity towards me who caused her pain; but nevertheless I could not honor her request, there were simply too many questions buzzing around in my head for me to stop at just one question, but my fear of her cautioned me to seriously think about my next question and my choice of words.

"Are you and arc, Serene?" I said bluntly, not quite as I expected it to come out.

"You don't listen too well, do you? Very well, this is the last question I will answer of yours; yes I am an arc, now shut up." Serene said, a bit more brusquely than before but still with a smile on her face. Still I couldn't resist, my caution was waning and my curiosity was growing in its place- I have never seen a living arc before tonight, and one so beautiful, I simply couldn't resist temptation.

"Do you live in Rosalina?" I again blurted, still not quite as I pictured myself saying it in my mind. This was an odd situation, normally I am a very charismatic speaker, but now I'm just blurting the first thing that comes to my mind with no thought of the consequences, which I was about to receive.

Serene spun around and swung her scythe as me faster than I could follow her with my eyes, the blade of the scythe ending up just behind my neck; I didn't dare _breathe_ much less move lest I risk losing my head with just a simple stroke on her part.

"I asked you quite nicely- _twice_- to stop asking questions and just shut up, now out comes a bit more motivation: shut up or die." Serene said, deadly serious, her smile now gone and replaced by a straight face with a bit of fury evidently present. I nodded since that's all I could think of to do at the time. Serene carefully brought her scythe back to her side without decapitating me, then she continued walking as I followed, shaking slightly at what just transpired.

The rest of the walk was in silence as I contemplated my escape. I figured I could run faster than her, but chances are that she'd catch me since she can fly and I can't, and if she were to catch me she probably would just kill me on the spot instead of kindly leading me back to the village- I assumed that's where we were going, and for once in this eventful night, I was right.

_Wait... why is she doing this anyways?_ I wondered, I hoped it she was leading me to somewhere to do something not involving her extra large and sharp scythe puncturing my skull, but by now I could only hope.

Wondering to myself for the remainder of the walk, we finally reached the lovely town of Rosalina surprisingly quickly. As we came out of the forest, I noticed a man- probably the one who was chasing me earlier- leaning on my former house very casually, as if he'd been there this whole time.

This man... Ein (understand it took me some time to recall his name at the time) was hardly an inch shorter than myself, and was not a pound lighter than me of muscle (my own build was somewhere between good and great by human standards, translating to demon standards is somewhere between average and acceptable, or just not good) his short, neat hair was chestnut brown while mine was long, messy and jet-black; Ein's light summer clothes were semi-clean while my light leather armor was somewhere between disgusting and infectious; his skin was fair but not quite pale while mine was a very light brown but not quite tanned- at that time it was just a bit darker than it would be if my skin was clean; in short, he looked a lot less sloppy than me, but I was a bit more outdoorsy-type looking than him; I could live with that semi-biased comparison between us.

What insulted me the most was that on the ground in front of him lay all my legally-owned worldly possesions- my spear and a hunting knife- just casually tossed on the ground as if it were garbage (it was garbage... _my_ garbage that is, and legal being defined loosely)

"Finally caught him huh?" Ein said, clapping his hands to feign congratulations to Serene as we approached.

"Oh, and did you catch him? No; you were too slow, you need to work out more, Ein." Serene retorted with a smile. I snickered, and both of them shot a furious look at me as if to non-vocally tell me to shut up, I did so.

"Now the only question is what to do with him." Ein said plainly, like he'd decided the fates of many like myself before.

_Letting me go would be nice, you know, since I did nothing wrong. _I mentally hoped, if only I'd gotten my wish.

"Let's just kill him, that's what demon hunters are supposed to do." Serene said nonchalantly, as if she just decided what to eat at a restaurant- Salad or Soup? Life or Death? What difference was either choice in the end?

_Demon Hunters!? Well, best start praying now since I'm pretty much certain to die!_

Ein looked like he was going to say something to argue against that verdict, then he didn't; he instead gave a slight nod- to me it seemed apparant that Serene was the kind of girl whom it was just best to let her have her way as opposed to arguing, which probably led to her getting her way anyways.

Serene flashed a deadly grin and brandished her scythe, I backed away and looked at Ein with a panicked expression, he looked like he was a bit regretful of letting her kill me, but still he didn't look like he was about to stop her, so it was up to me to beg for my life- what did I have to lose? Dignity is so overrated.

"What did I do to warrant such a punishment? Remember, it was _you_ who attacked _me_ in _my_ house." I pleaded, the way I said it quite simply set Serene's fury fuse off.

"EXCUSE ME? YOUR HOUSE!?" Serene screamed at me; she paused with great effort to give me a moment to think of why that insulted her so.

It took me a few seconds, but I finally put 2 and 2 together: the house I was living in was Serene's former home before the genocide of the arcs, and she probably wanted to show it to Ein, and in her home she found a demon living in it like a snail in someone else's shell. Said demon not only disgraced her dead family, but on several occasions probably searched through her... undergarment drawers (which I had, and I thank god that she didn't realize that or I wouldn't have hands to write this, if by some miracle she let me live).

Serene advanced toward me, scythe in hand, ready to kill me in the most barbaric and horrible manner her mind could conceive, and she would have if not for Ein's intervention.

"Serene, don't!" Ein said in a very resolute voice as he stepped between us, facing Serene while keeping a bit of attention to me to make sure I didn't run away. Evidently the thought of her just killing me was ok, but her killing me in _anger_ made all the difference to him, so he stepped in.

Serene stood still for a moment, just staring Ein down with a cold fury that would have made me retreat to a dark corner far away, but Ein remained in place; Serene eventually broke down and went into her home, her sobbing clearly audible. Neither me or Ein dared to follow her, instead we stayed outside and exchanged pleasantries.

"So... I'm Ein, what's your name?" Ein asked pleasantly, surprising me after all this drama. Vaguely I could recall someone asking a question like that today, but they sounded far more foolish when they said it (me).

"I know your name, Serene said it when she commanded you to chase me like a hound; I'm Patrick." I said, which I immediately regretted how insulting that must've sounded to someone who just saved my life; nevertheless Ein laughed, again surprising me.

"So how did you get caught by her anyways? Something tells me you would've been able to outrun her." Ein asked, once again surprising me, he evidently didn't follow me as far as the lake, or probably even the tree. I told him the story from when I knew he was chasing me to when Serene was standing on the shore, motioning for me to come closer (I elected to omit the part where I was staring at Serene, for obvious reasons); Ein listened to it carefully for the duration, when I finished he sat silently for a moment, then he again laughed.

"Honestly, you were running so much faster than me, I lost sight of you within the first 30 seconds. I reached the lakeside, probably long after you did, then Serene caught up and told me to go back, and she started to fly over the lake to look for you, evidently she found you." Ein said, and I laughed since I was expected to. With not much else to say, we spent a long moment listening to Serene continue to cry inside, Ein eventually broke the semi-silence with an apology.

"I'm sorry for everything that's happened, no hard feelings?" Ein said, offering me his hand. I simply stared at his hand gloved with a fingerless glove for a long, pensive moment- this time I wasn't quite surprised, more like confused- Ein didn't do anything wrong, and neither did Serene; I was the one who decided it was ok to live in a deceased family's home and claim it as my own, I was at fault, not they.

"You've got nothing to apologize for, you've done nothing wrong." I said, voicing my thoughts and ignoring his hand; Ein struck me as the persistent type, and as I expected he refused to leave it at that.

"We shouldn't have acted so aggressively, if we didn't unsheathe our weapons, you wouldn't have panicked and ran." Ein confessed immediately, as if he expected me to say that. Still his hand was outstretched, and finally I took and and we shook.

Finally Serene finished crying, she came out to us, eyes reddened as I expected; she gestured for both of us to come in and she gave us both a brief tour of the house, which was at first useless for me- I'd lived in this house long enough to know it, that being 2 weeks.

The first upstairs room Serene showed us was the one I'd been living in- her widowed mother's room. Upon hearing whose room it was, I was shocked, or perhaps revolted since this was the room I'd... searched for various... articles of clothing that turned out to be Serene's _mother's_!

"Can I use the bathroom?" I asked, Serene gave me a suspicious look that asked why; when I didn't immediately give her an answer, she gave me an irritated look that told me to wait, so I simply avoided touching anything until I could wash my hands.

The next room we were forcibly shown was Serene's own, which was previously locked and I had never made an effort to break in during my stay.

"This is my room, I'll let you boys look around on your own; but if I catch you searching through things that should not be searched, I will personally kill you by slow castration!" Serene said cheerfully as she exited the room.

_Still she threatens me; but on the bright side, she isn't crying or screaming anymore and Ein is included in the threat! Progress!_ I remember thinking joyfully at the time. _Though I wonder why she doesn't want to go into her own room; too many memories of her family?_

As I was looking around her room, I noticed a picture on the nightstand next to Serene's bed; it was a picture of Serene holding a baby in her arms and smiling brightly.

_Did Serene already have a baby before the genocide? Can't be, this picture is old- very old at that, like it was taken a decade or two ago! But why does Serene look the same if this picture was taken so long ago?_

For several minutes I closely observed the picture, Ein noticed my interest in the picture and looked over my shoulder to see it himself, and he was equally confused by it as I was for the same reasons. Eventually Serene came in to check on us, and she quickly swiped the picture from my hands.

"What's so interesting about my mother to you two anyways?" Serene asked with a light demand added to it.

_Her mother..? That's Serene's mother!? Comparing her to the picture, they look more like twins! _I nearly blurted, Evidently Ein thought the same as me, as his face held the same shocked expression as I pictured myself having when I looked at him.

After much thought, now I think my... privacy invasion is a bit less revolting since her mother looks so much like her; I just pray she doesn't read this; death by slow castration can't be pleasant, I imagine.

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A.N- HA! how's that for a temporary ending? (emphasis on temporary...) I say that because of what I mentioned last chapter in that this story isn't going to be updated for a while, at least not when I'm working on Mother Malice; so enjoy what you've read so far and be patient, or even better, read Mother Malice while you wait!


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